A conventional catching machine (pitching practice machine) is disclosed in, for example, Japanese unexamined patent publication No. 2002-263233. The catching machine according to Japanese unexamined patent publication No. 2002-263233 has a three-dimensional ball receiving portion and a display portion for displaying a strike count, a ball count, and a ball speed which are obtained when a flying ball hits the ball receiving portion located within a predetermined region.
The conventional catching machine is structured as described above. Although the conventional catching machine displays the counts and the ball speed during pitching, it is disadvantageous in that a pitched ball is not returned. Returning a pitched ball can be a solution to this problem. However, there has been a problem that a ball cannot be returned to an arbitrary position that is desired by a pitcher.